A presidential campaign event organized by Russian anti-Kremlin activist Aleksei Navalny was abruptly halted, due to an alleged bomb threat. He blamed "idiotic authorities" for trying to stop him by evacuating the event.

The foreign and defense ministers of Japan and Russia have begun "two-plus-two" talks in Tokyo, with both sides saying regional security and the dispute over a small chain of islands will be discussed.

Military drills involving Russia’s airborne forces and its Black Sea fleet on March 20 are, according to the forces’ commander, the first time in the Russian military’s history that airborne formations from three separate locations are being simultaneously mobilized and brought to Crimea with weapons, live ammunition, and heavy equipment. (Russian Service)

Russian President Vladimir Putin formally approved this week an intergovernmental agreement to incorporate "some military units" of Georgia's breakaway Republic of South Ossetia into the Russian armed forces.

Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner has reported that child suicides increased 57 percent in 2016 over the previous year, reversing a downward trend between 2011 to 2015. She cited the avalanche of so-called "death groups" on social networks, which provide links to graphic information and methods for taking one’s life, as a leading cause. (in Russian, Current Time TV)

A spokesman for Ukraine’s defense ministry declared on March 20 that the conflict in Ukraine’s eastern region, which began in the spring of 2014, has claimed the lives of 2629 soldiers and wounded 9,4000. (Ukrainian Service)